Charlie Chan in Reno

71 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglish

Charlie Chan in Reno is a 1939 American mystery film directed by Norman Foster, starring Sidney Toler as the fictional Chinese-American detective Charlie Chan, based on an original story "Death Makes a Decree" by Philip Wylie.

Plot

Mary Whitman has arrived in Reno to obtain a divorce. While there, she is arrested on suspicion of murdering a fellow guest at her hotel (which specializes in divorcers).

There are many others at the hotel who wanted the victim out of the way. Charlie Chan travels from his home in Honolulu to Reno to solve the murder at the request of Mary's soon-to-be ex-husband. On arrival in Reno, Chan spars pleasantly with Sheriff Tombstone Fletcher, an old-timer who isn't up-to-date on modern police methods.

No. 2 Son Jimmy Chan's part in the case gets off to a rocky start. Driving to Reno to meet his father, he picks up some "friendly" hitch-hikers who steal his car, strip him to his underwear, and abandon him in the middle of nowhere. He is picked up for vagrancy, and his father first encounters him in a police lineup.

But Jimmy's friendship with a Chinese maid at the hotel later proves invaluable. Choy Wong had hidden a carpet burn in the murder room, fearing she would be discharged for carelessness. But it develops the burn is an unusual one caused by acid. Charlie exposes the murderer by revealing an acid burn on the arm that had been hidden by unfashionably long sleeves.

Chan also exposes the "respectable" Dr. Ainsley as a fortune hunter who had sought to poison one of his female patients for inheritance money.

Cast

• Sidney Toler as Charlie Chan
• Victor Sen Yung as Jimmy Chan ("Number 2 son")
• Ricardo Cortez as Dr. Ainsley
• Phyllis Brooks as Vivian Wells
• Slim Summerville as Sheriff Tombstone Fletcher
• Kane Richmond as Curtis Whitman
• Pauline Moore as Mary Whitman (Mrs. Curtis Whitman)
• Iris Wong as Choy Wong
• Eddie Collins as Cab Driver
• Robert Lowery as Walter Burke
• Charles D. Brown as Chief of Police King
• Louise Henry as Jeanne Bently
• Morgan Conway as George Bently

External links

• Charlie Chan in Reno at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
• Charlie Chan in Reno at IMDb
• Charlie Chan in Reno at AllMovie
• Charlie Chan in Reno at the TCM Movie Database
• Charlie Chan in Reno Film details at The Charlie Chan Family Home
• Charlie Chan in Reno at Rotten Tomatoes